First Concert

Favorite Bands/Artists

There are too many to mention here. However, I'll list The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Radiohead, Jackson Browne, and Wilco as go-to bands. I have always loved the rock, but growing up in Philly, have also always been a fan of soul and R&B. My all-time favorite song is "La La Means I Love You" by The Delfonics.

Favorite Local Bands

Bands Bruce has Played In

The only band I ever played in was at Freddie Cohen's Bar Mitzvah when I was 13. Freddie played drums, I played guitar. We were a band with no name, but we sure did rock.

Favorite Movie

When push comes to shove, Goodfellas
is my all-time favorite movie. Of all the amazing movies of that genre (such as Godfather, Scarface, etc) Goodfellas stands out; Ray Liotta's performance in that movie is just amazing.

Musician Most Excited to Meet

It's a tie between Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

How Bruce Got into Radio:

I started at XPN as a volunteer. Back in the 80's I was writing about the Philly music scene for a local newspaper. I got to know the then-Music Director at XPN, who was in a band called The Johnsons. One night we were all hanging out in a bar watching some bands and the director told me there was an overnight spot open at XPN, then asked if I wanted to be a DJ. I started on overnights at XPN, and the rest is history.

Previous Jobs

WXPN is the only radio station where I have ever worked. Prior to getting in the music biz, I was in the restaurant business working for Steve Poses in the late 70's at The Commissary and then opening the chain of restaurants I created, Eden. I was with that company for many years working as both a cook and in the front of the house. My last restaurant job was at Roller's in Chestnut Hill, still one of the best restaurants in Philly.

Being this month's WXPN Artist To Watch comes quickly after Feist's April 2005 release of Let It Die on the Interscope Records label.

Let It Die is very much a voice album in close up, "eye to eye and ear to ear". Carefully pieced together around Feist's seductively honest voice, the album forms the missing link between ye old folk (storytelling), the Brill building era (the quest for the hook), doo-wop (melody and mood) and minimal modern pop arrangements. Like line drawings as opposed to detailed paintings, these songs leave you space to fill in the emotional blanks. Its lack of complication makes Let It Die standout from much of today's musical offerings; put simply, a beautiful slice of sonic escapism to illustrate and interrupt the little moments that together tell us stories.

A history not lacking in variety, the Canadian born singer has accomplished much in her few tender years, so for those inquisitive journo types, here are the last few years in a nut shell...

"My first proper gig was supporting The Ramones at an outdoor festival when my high school punk band won a battle of the bands contest. We played together for about five years. I moved to Toronto from Rodeo/Olympic town Calgary to see a musical injuries doctor, after losing my voice on my first cross-Canadian tour when I was 19. Not knowing a soul in Toronto I spent six months in a dark basement apartment with a 4-track, and having been told not to sing, I got a guitar to do it for me. A couple of years later I was playing guitar in a rock band that toured for six months opening for a big Canadian band (The Tragically Hip) in mostly in front of stadium crowds of around 20,000. The same year (1999) I put out my first solo album which I sold off the stage, though somewhat smaller stages."

"Then in 2000 my roommate Peaches made her soon to be cult-fodder album Teaches of Peaches, I sang on it a bit, and played in her seminal shows in Toronto and later in Europe. I was called Bitch Lap-Lap, and I rapped badly with a sock puppet in poor Spanish wearing Cuban aerobics outfits. The house Peaches and I lived in was called the 701 and keys were cut for Mocky, Taylor Savvy, Gonzales and The World Provider. We've all been playing together in various forms for years."

"I later sang on Gonzales' first European release in 2000 (Uber Alles) and started touring with him in Europe in between working on a new generation of solo songs. Around this time (2001) some old friends and I wanted to find a way to endure the brutal interminable Canadian winter and so booked a show for a month later with the idea to write all the songs for it in that time. This show took on the name Broken Social Scene, because two of the guys had made an instrumental album by that name the year before, and they figured they'd never play those songs live. In between touring with Chilly in 2001, I added my vocals to the ever growing Broken Social Scene album, (Fact fans: this album, You Forgot It In People, was finally released in the UK October 2003 some months after its North American release on its self-created label Arts and Crafts), and we began touring North America."

"On odd weeks off during touring Europe with Gonzales during the winter of 02/03, he and I began recording some of the songs from my home demos (The Red Demos featuring Pete Elkas, Matt Murphy and members of Sloan,) together in Paris with Renaud Letang (Manu Chao). Later we started writing together and also tried to reinterpret some covers we loved."

Visit our CD store at Amazon, and find music like Feist, and other XPN Artists. Your purchase that starts here supports WXPN public radio.

So here we are in the present day, with eleven tracks (depending on what country you're in) to soundtrack your days and narrate your nights. Let It Die is cinematic, expressive, sensory and incredibly fun - yes fun!

In recent collaborations she can be found on the new album, Republic of Two, by the Kings Of Convenience, singing a duet with Mocky on his new album Are and Be, has written a duet with Jane Birkin for her newest release, is featured on Arts and Crafts labelmate Apostle of Hustle's newest opus and work on the new Broken Social Scene album is just now beginning.

So there you have it - Let It Die and Feist - the breakup and the makeup. This is an album that will follow you easily from the bath to the bar and soundtrack your mood for both. This is an album that seems to reach nostalgically to a time when singers crossed all styles whether they were old fashioned or in fashion. This is shared privacy, and it's your own life you're looking at.

Excerpted from official bio

Feist Q&A

Conducted by Bruce Warren

For a "singer and songwriter" in the acoustic sense of "singer-songwriter" you have some pretty broad musical interests. Let's start with the rap side of Feist. You did some rapping with Peaches. How did you meet her?
We became roommates right around the time she bought her first MC505 groovebox and starting making beats. I heard the making of Teaches of Peaches happen through our bedroom walls. The antics that happened later on stage were cooked up like our meals were, and me singing on her record the little bit that I did happened because I was there and we were us.

You collaborated with Peaches on her cult classic Teaches of Peaches. How was that experience? And what was your "rap" name? Oh, I took the name Bitch Lap-Lap. I had been in Cuba for a month and learned the all important words for "bitch" and "rich" which roughly become Puta Rica (a play on "puerto rico") which then in the cold north became Bitch Lap-Lap (as in "lap it up"). Yo.

You've also collaborated with the indie rock band Broken Social Scene. How did you come to know those musicians? Broken was born in the collective sense one long cold winter. We booked a gig at a local club with no songs written with the idea that we would write them all in the month before the date. We all had played with each other in various bands for years before that and Broken was the accumulation of all the best van conversations and collaborations from all of our years together. The family only keeps extending, like octopus' arms into each of our pasts. Metric and stars are old high school friends of Kevin Drew. It was one thing in the beginning, but like anything truly alive it's ebbed and morphed over the years. The five in the middle hold down the fort. So those swinging saloon doors will stay open to the rest of us who join when we can - Emily and James from Metric, Amy from stars.

Name a couple of your musical (or otherwise) influences and why. Surprising turns of phrase, red cotton over a window, freshly cut grass, intentions behind the songs that are as audible as the sound.

What was the last great book you read?1001 Arabian Nights , The 4-Chambered Heart - Anais Nin

There is so much amazing Canadian music that Americans never get to hear. Name three artists from Canada whose records - other than yours - we should go out and buy. Great Lake Swimmers (any album), The Constantines' Shine A Light, Apostle Of Hustle Folkloric Feel

There is something so beautifully nostalgic sounding about the record yet so forward leaning. Is that a feeling you intentionally went for in recording the record? I love simplicity. I love hearing in someone's playing the moment they listen to the instinct to stop themselves rather than play just because they can. It wasn't so much conscious as instinct that has the record so sparsely arranged.

What's the one great song someone else has written that you wished you did write and why? "Pull Up The People" by M.I.A. - only because I don't have the instinct for writing banging beats. I always write slow 3/4 time ballads and try and speed them up. I can't imagine having the ease with melody and beats the way she does. Arular is such a good album.

Veirs had spent most of 2004 touring in support of the hauntingly beautiful Carbon Glacier, her breakthrough effort and Nonesuch debut. She started out in Europe, where she was greeted with overwhelming critical praise and sold-out houses. Then Veirs worked her way around the States, where she was still just being discovered (though the reviews were also often superlative). The experience was at times heady, other times grueling, and she incorporated it into her new songs. However, given Veirs' vividly descriptive yet dream-like lyrics, you won't learn anything about her actual itinerary. Year of Meteors is no ordinary travelogue, but it will definitely take you on a remarkable journey.

"All the songs are about transportation, motion," Veirs explains. "If you listen to the words, there's always some movement happening, whether it's greyhounds running down a mountainside as mud flows or a person flying off into the sun or someone lurking around the bottom of the sea. I think that's because I was in motion so much of the year. Somehow I knew that all the traveling would come into the songs, but I wanted to remain focused on the bigger things, not just life on the road, so that's why there are no direct references to that."

There are, she hastens to add, "love songs related to that experience, like the struggles of being away from home and your partner. Or having my band and the different relationships I have formulated, many of them very close because of the intense circumstances of touring. So it's a relationship record too."

And, finally, it's a band record: a fertile collaboration between Veirs and her studio band, the Tortured Souls (who often play live with her) - Steve Moore (piano, organs), Karl Blau (bass, guitar, vocals), and producer Tucker Martine (drums, percussion, treatments). Viola player Eyvind Kang, another longtime associate, also sat in. As Veirs explains, "When we talked about making the album, we decided to record a lot of these songs as a band first, then do some more of the solo type of songs. It had always been the opposite before, I would go in and record the more quiet guitar parts and sing. This time, half of the record or more are tracks that we did live as a band first. Then we went in and recorded the quieter ones. We approached this from the beginning more as a band album and it really turned out that way."

Laura Veirs Q&A with WXPN's Bruce Warren

Congratulations on your new album. What was on your mind creatively when you started to record and write for this new album? Did you want to stake out any particular musical position? Attempt anything new? Or not?I like making my records different from one to the next. It feels fresh and exciting to change it up and to surprise people. So yes, I was thinking: I want to play more electric guitar, more uptempo songs that are fun to play live, I want drums and beats all over this new recording. Also, I was thinking about air a lot, and space, and birds, and travel, and so those elements crept in as well.

You and Tucker Martine have worked together for a while. How did you meet him? What does he bring to the creative process for you?Yes, this is our fourth recording together. I met him through another Seattle songwriter, Aiko Shimada, in 2000. He's wonderful to work with. He brings this to the recording process: intense focus, a great sense of humor, the ability to have fun over long, long hours, and a perfectionism that doesn't interfere with the raw feeling of a good take. He also hears things that I wouldn't generally: programmed beats with unusual meters, strange textures that i wouldn't have thought of but that make the songs spring to life. I try to come with the foundation of a good song; he helps them shimmer.

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What kinds of music did you listen to when you were growing up?My parents had all kinds of music on around the house, but mostly classical music. And, of course, I listened to pop music on the radio. My dad enjoyed messing around with piano and guitar and had a fun, casual relationship with music that was good to be around.

I read once somewhere that you were in a punk band? How did that occur? Was it the energy of punk that you were drawn to?Yes, I was in a punk band in college. I was - and still am - inspired by the DIY ethic of punk: you have what it takes to make your life happen. And if a big part of your life is music - you can write songs, record them, do the artwork, and find a way to do shows with people. When I was starting out, it was great for me to discover the riot grrl movement and people like Ani DiFranco. And yes, the energy of punk is still absolutely compelling to me. We have one punk song that we play live - a punk version of the song "Magnetized" on the album, and it is so, so, so fun to play. Playing with feedback is like charming snakes, like manouvering vipers or something. Exciting stuff.

You moved to Seattle in the late 90's. What was it like establishing your career as a musician there?It took quite a while, for a variety of reasons. 1 - I wasn't very good. I was writing interesting songs, but I couldn't sing very well. I'm very appreciative of the people who supported me in the beginning and gave me the sense that I was doing something worthwhile even though it was really raw. 2 - I was playing acoustic guitar and getting interested in old-time folk music in a town that was still coming out of being the grunge capital of the world. "Folk" had a bad name back then. I'm glad people are starting to use it again, and understanding that it's not all woo-woo and soft. 3 - It takes time to find your people when you move to a new place. I think it took about four years for me to find the peeps that I really enjoyed playing with, and those peeps - among others - are the ones that are in my band now: Karl Blau, Steve Moore and Tucker Martine.

What song do you wished you'd have written?"Famous Blue Raincoat" by Leonard Cohen or "River Man" by Nick Drake.

You spent some time in China. When was that and what were the circumstances for your going there?I spent a month there when I was 18, visiting my cousins who were studying Buddhism there. Then I went back when I was 21 for six months of studying Mandarin, and then again when I was 23 for three months to do my senior thesis in geology in the remote Takalamakan desert.

Name a few of your musical guilty pleasures.Listening to my partner Pete imitate Morrissey. It's not a guilty pleasure, just a real pleasure every time he does it.

"For us, ALO is more than just a band and we're more than just a group of great friends making music together. ALO is our lifestyle."

With this simple aphorism, keyboardist/vocalist Zach Gill sums up the unique dynamic that defines ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra). Born from a friendship nurtured during their days at the University of California Santa Barbara, the four-piece collective includes Steve Adams (bass/vocals), Dan Lebowitz (guitars/percussion/vocals) and David Brogan (drums/vocals). Part musical explorers, part pop songsmiths, all around dynamic performers, ALO has been taking the West Coast by storm and now, with their new album Fly Between Falls and a supporting slot on Jack Johnson's summer tour, is prepared to make their presence known worldwide.

Zach, Dan and Steve have been playing together in various incarnations of different musical groups for years, forming the "Animal Liberation Orchestra and the Free Range Horns" with their college jazz band director on drums. Originally a nine-piece outfit, the band began drawing enormous attention in the Santa Barbara area with their rousing stage shows. When Zach, Dan and Steve returned to their hometown San Francisco, they stripped back down to a quartet, playing with a wide variety of different drummers. Finally, in 2002, the trio reunited with drummer David Brogan (with whom they had previously played in college) and the ultimate version of ALO was solidified.

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Visit our CD store at Amazon, and find music like the John Butler Trio, and other XPN Artists. Your purchase that starts here supports WXPN public radio.

ALO was quickly labeled the golden child of the West Coast's buzzing underground scene, never losing the garage band energy that makes every one of their shows an event rather than just a performance, laying soulful melodies and swirling improvisation over precision funk grooves night after night. The band skillfully weaves quirky California soul with shape-shifting explorations, introspective lyrics with sun-soaked funk, all infused with the uplifting vibe that ALO's ever growing legion of fans live for. Many genres have been thrown around to capture what the San Francisco Chronicle ultimately dubbed "sex-music boogaloo."

But in the end, ALO's sound is always changing. One thing that never changes, however, is the fact that this is a band composed of four top-notch musicians at the top of their game. Trained equally in the classics, jazz, pop and funk craftsmanship, ALO's music is a hybrid of the best of all worlds - songs composed, refined and performed by multi-talented artists with a passion for quality musicianship and creativity in all they do. Dan concurs, "All four of us share a real interest in continually learning about music - new styles, new ways of playing, new ways of engaging an audience - and that's something that we never want to stop."

And, indeed, engaging the audience is what ALO is all about. Each of the band members can list many favorite "live" moments in which the group and their fans have bonded in concert. There have been numerous times when the band would bring out an "applause meter" for their encore, then play ten-second snippets of songs and allow the audience to "vote" on which song the band would ultimately play.

Their recent California Tour d'Amour culminated in Santa Barbara with an event extravaganza dubbed the Silky Sensuous Ball that ended up resembling a psychedelic high school prom. Or their show at San Francisco's famed Independent club, where they broke the venue's all-time sales record and then proceeded to whip the crowd into a climactic disco frenzy with their own unique take on ABBA's "Dancing Queen."

"At an ALO show, we want to create a happy, uplifting environment - a safe place for the audience to feel free to be themselves," says Zach.

From band's website

10 Questions for David Brogan of ALO

By Bruce Warren

Our listeners are already asking... how did the band come up with the name of the band?Three out of the four of us were music majors at UC Santa Barbara. At the time the music department was very conservative, with little room for jazz or rock music - our main passions. The name of the band is kind of an idea against that. As if, in the middle of a classical orchestra concert, everyone turned into animals and started dancing around in a wild frenzy. At the time the band was a nine piece with a horn section - so it was a little closer to an orchestra than it is now.

Does the band mind being lumped in to the "jam band" genre?We certainly don't mind being a part of the "jam band" scene; we've worked hard to get our music out to that audience, and part of what we do naturally appeals to them. I'm not sure I'd call "jam band" a genre, though. For any band in that scene, I can think of a better genre description than "jam band." I'd call ALO "eclectic groove-rock." That sounds more like a genre to me.

If you can speak for some of your bandmates, what are some of your all-time favorite records you personally like to listen to.Everyone in the band is into different things. Zach's into piano-based singer-songwriters (Billy Joel, Randy Newman, Ben Folds). Dan's into soul jazz (Grant Green, Wes Montgomery). Steve and I are really into roots rock (Neil Young, The Band, Donna The Buffalo), but if you're talking collectively I'd list three albums that we all probably dig equally: Back To The Grotto by The Mother Hips, The Royal Scam by Steely Dan, and It's A Jungle In Here by Medeski, Martin and Wood.

I read that the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed what ALO do as "sex-music boogaloo." What the heck does that mean? Do you think people have sex to your music or do the boogaloo to your music?If someone ended up having sex to our music it's only because they started off with Bebel Gilberto, and we were the next disc in the changer. Actually, I'd be honored to be in the same CD changer with Bebel. To me, that's sexy. Actually, make it Bebel, Jill Scott and Kylie Minogue.

How'd you connect with Jack Johnson's label?We met Jack in college. He was in the dorms with Steve, Dan, and Zach. Whenever our paths would cross, on the road, he'd sit in on "Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down." Then we got him to record it with us on the album. We opened for him on his national tour this year, and it all just naturally led to signing with his label. Jack is the most responsible for making it all happen.

Here are some drummer questions... Do you have any favorite drummers?
Well, all the usual Gods of the Drum pantheon of course. We know who they are. Two I'd like to mention though are John Wright from No Means No and Levon Helm from The Band. I love John Wright because he rocks with a punk energy, but he plays intricate Neil Peart-type licks. He's a perfect hybrid of punk and jazz drumming. That's just something I identify with on a deep level. And I love Levon because he played and sang with such soul, simultaneously! As a singing drummer, I have to admire that.

There must be a drum fill or drum break that you've heard on a record and gone, "wow, I wish I invented that one." Are there one or two of those that you can share with us?"The Funky Drummer" - James Brown, drums by Clyde Stubblefield. Everybody that hears this break wishes they played it, but it's enough to just be thankful that it exists. Sampled and used in every other rap track from 1990 to 1995, for good reason. It grooves on the deepest level. I could practice that beat for 100 years and never get it right. Clyde Stubblefield should win a MacArthur "Genius" award or maybe a Nobel Prize.

Any Ringo Starr fill. I'll never have that much character in my playing. Talk about an unmistakable sound, talk about a calling card - those drum fills are iconic. Ringo's playing is often sampled and imitated as well. I think he was a very powerful sonic force in The Beatles.

The Seventies or the Eighties? And Why?The Seventies. And not just the seventies but 1971. Why? Blue by Joni Mitchell, Hunky Dory by David Bowie, Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison.

Who are some great local bands in the Bay Area that our listeners should know about?
Hot Buttered Rum String Band - kick ass bluegrass songs with twists and a youthful, anything-goes rock aesthetic. Tea Leaf Green - West Coast swamp rock with pastoral lyrics in the lineage of The Mother Hips. I'd call it California soul. Hella rockin'... The Court and Spark - dreamy, atmospheric, cinematic country-folk-rock. They make luscious recordings with lots of pedal steel guitar. Neil Young on opium. General Elektriks. Masterminded in Oakland by Herve Salters, they rock mainly in France, but they're about to be released in the US by Quannum Records. Driven by funky vintage keyboards and creative drum loops. Money Mark meets Radiohead meets Remy Chand meets The Headhunters. The East Bay always has been the funk capitol of the West Coast. Still is.

Finally, a question all drummers think about. Do you ever worry about spontaneously combusting while performing?This joke is more appropriate than you might think. ALO has had at least seven drummers over the years. I already spontaneously combusted, in '96. It wasn't that bad, really. You should try it!

ALO's CD Fly Between Falls was released this year, and is distributed by Brushfire Records.